Going To My First Tournament

[yorepoor]

Hey everyone!
I played pokémon tcg casually as a kid at a local pokemon league, and it was lots of fun! After a while though, I got kind of bored since I didn't have anyone who would show me how to make a truly competitive deck and as a 10 years old kid I didn't really have the motivation to look up decks, or do something as disgusting as buying seperate cards, because, trading card game???

Fast forward 4 years, I got bored and decided to take a look at the TCG, and how bad I used to be. So after watching awesome channels like TCGZapdos and The TopCut, I tried deciding on a deck that wasn't expensive, but not budget either.
I decided on Speed Lugia, it actually doesn't have as bad as a matchup against Donphan as one might think. Especially with VS Seeker back in the format, I usually win against Donphan by getting out 3 things with Lysandre. That's a lot easier to pull off than when you need to get 6 things out with Lysandre.

Now, I'm kind of confused as to what's the best thing I can do right now to improve. I've played lots of matches with my deck on TCG One and watched lots of recorded TCG(O) matches. I'm planning to go to city championships. The issue is,as you might have figured out, that I'll be playing in the seniors division, and I'm not sure how many poeple in my division will be playing at the smaller chamionships. It would be kind of a waste if I went to a tournament, play a match, and be done with it.

Question is: Is it common at tournaments to play a few practice games between matches? Do poeple in the Masters division play with almost-master division players like me sometimes too? I'm kind of scared that I'll go all the way to a tournament, play with a player who may not even play competitively, and go home. (I would probably get some awesome prices though )

Do any of you master-division players play with senior players too sometimes, for example??


Thanks!

 

[Machamp The Champion]

Depending on where you live, the Senior Division will usually have a lot more players than just 2 players. Where I live (the US), they often have around 8-10 people at Cities. In other countries, there will likely be less people than that. I don't know exactly how many, as I live in the US, but I assume it's more than 2 people. And if your Division has barely any people in it, they'll combine your Division with another one for the day, so those players get to play more rounds.

If you ask a Master Division player to play a game or 2, they're more likely to say yes than no, regardless of what age you are. People like to play Pokemon, and they're usually happy to help a new player and teach them a bit about the game. If a younger player walked up to me and wanted to play a game, I would usually say yes. Now, I am only 16, but I don't feel like that would change when I get older.

Hope this was helpful to you, and good luck at that Cities!

 

[Blah]

Also, I want to warn you that depending on the number of people and level of play in your area, you may not do well at your very first tournament. Don't get discouraged--perhaps the biggest factor in improving and eventually succeeding/winning is experience. The more you play, the better you'll get. I'd encourage you to branch out, meet as many people as you can and make as many friends as you can at your first tournament--not only because tournaments are a great social experience, but because having a group that you can play a lot of games with outside of tournaments is extremely helpful in getting better.

 

[yorepoor]

Okay, I think it'll be good then. I was thinking that maybe some players wouldn't be competitive in Seniors, but it seems most will be playing competitively.
And if they will combine divisions, I think attendance won't be a problem. I live in Holland by the way, so I don't think there will be 8-10 players, but it might be nice to have something small as my first tournament. Thanks!